Alex Sullivan

"Alex... Alex, wake up!" My sister's voice echoed in the distance.

"No... I failed you... I left you to die," I murmured, remembering what had happened.

"Alex, you didn't fail us. It just wasn't your time yet; you can't give up," my mom's voice added, gentle yet firm.

"But why? Why did I survive? What reason is there to keep going?" I asked.

"No one knows that yet, Al. But you have to find out. Don't give up... son," my dad's voice broke through, calling me "son" in a rare moment of tenderness. "Don't make people regret raising you into the man you are today," he said as they all began to fade away.

"Come on, slowpoke! Don't make me angry now!" My sister smiled at me one last time.

"Now WAKE UP!"

A sudden, unfamiliar voice jolted me awake.

"WAKE UP, MISTER! IT'S NOW OR NEVER!" A girl's voice pierced through, urgently shaking me.

I opened my eyes, blinking against the darkness, and saw a blurry outline of a blue shirt. A young girl stood there, facing away from me, holding what looked like a stick.

It was dark... more like night without stars. Strange crystals illuminated a massive cave ceiling above us. Was there even a cave this large anywhere in the world? I tried pushing myself up with my left hand, the only part of me that wasn't aching.

"Ugh... where are we?" I asked, finally getting to my feet. But before I could take in the girl's response, my eyes landed on a pair of red, glowing eyes. A large, green creature stood nearby. My vision was still fuzzy, but it looked like... a lizard? Only this one was as big as a dog.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" The girl looked at me as if she'd just reunited with a long-lost family member.

"I don't know where we are, who you are, or what the hell this thing is," she said, panic edging her voice. "I woke up two minutes ago, and it was eating my shoe!"

It was impossible to know where we were, but seeing the water behind us and the fact that we were both soaking wet, it seemed we were in an underwater cave. But if that was the case... what was that creature? And those crystals? My mind raced, trying to piece things together.

"Keke, keke," the creature made a strange sound, snapping me back to reality. It didn't matter where we were; we had to get away from that thing and figure the rest out later. I glanced around and noticed a glowing crystal deposit nearby. We both backed away from the lizard as we made our way toward it.

"Hold on," I said to the stranger. "Maybe we can use this somehow." I tried tearing a crystal loose, and as I touched it, it glowed even brighter. Surprisingly, it was warm! But there was no time to marvel at it. I yanked a part off with a loud crack that made me flinch.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked, concern crossing her face.

"Do I look okay?" I shot back, panting. I was in one of the worst conditions of my life: my body was battered, my right hand either broken or badly hurt, and one of my fingers was swollen and dislocated. The wet bandages on my hand barely held together. My left shoulder throbbed from an injury I got in the car accident, yet somehow, I was still standing.

I managed to tear off another crystal chunk to use for defense. These crystals were like crops; it was easy to take one without disturbing the others. Holding two crystals, I stood beside the girl, hoping the glowing rocks might scare the creature off. But it wasn't working. Frustrated, I threw the smaller crystal at the creature, aiming to startle it.

The crystal missed completely, hitting the ground next to it. 

but then

"BAM!"The crystal exploded with a loud bang, knocking both of us off our feet. The blast shook the creature, sending it scrambling away at a speed I didn't think was possible.

"UGH, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" The girl groaned, struggling to get up.

"I HAVE NO IDEA, but it worked somehow... argh, my hand," I gasped, grimacing as I fell on my right side, further jamming my already-injured hand against the ground.

"Well, at least we're still alive," she said with a weak laugh, helping me up. "Good job... Mister."

"It's Alex... Alex Sullivan."

"Yukio... Shinazugawa," she replied. She looked about my age, probably Japanese, judging by her name, accent, and features.

"Is your hand okay?" Yukio asked, eyeing my bandaged hand.

"Not really, but it should be better once we get out of here," I said, grabbing the larger illuminating crystal I'd torn.

"You're going to carry that... bomb? Are you crazy?" Yukio said, backing away slowly.

I couldn't help but chuckle, despite our grim situation. We'd just been saved by this "bomb," and seeing her awkwardly inch away cracked a small smile on my face.

"This thing saved us. Plus, it's like an overcharged glowstick. Do you really want to bet on getting out of here without light or protection?" I joked, half-serious.

Yukio looked at crystal for few seconds,peacing it together after finally looking at me.

"Glow-stick? What a weird name, but fine. Just... don't drop it," she replied, relaxing a bit but still visibly tense.

Once we'd dried off a bit by the crystal deposit, it was time to get moving. We started walking in the opposite direction of where the creature had fled. This cave system was enormous. After about 20 minutes of silence, Yukio half-whispered, "Thank you... for everything... Alex-san."

"Sorry, what was that?" I asked, unsure if I'd heard correctly.

"You know, for the glowstick... and the other thing... I thought that was the end," Yukio said, looking down. Her voice trembled, and then she turned away, trying to hold back tears.

of course she was in shock, we had survived the vortex of a river only to wake up in this strange cave by the gigantic lizard.

"Hey, don't thank me just yet. You kind of owe me one, okay? Help me get out of here, then brag about it, and we'll be even," I teased, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Fair enough," Yukio replied with a small, shaky laugh.

As we continued walking, we encountered all sorts of strange creatures in the cave. There were squirrel-like animals, birds hanging from the ceiling like bats, and other oddities. My vision was adjusting to the darkness, and to my surprise, I could see more clearly than I would have expected without my glasses.

I remember reading stories of senses coming back or increasing temporarily during or right after death situations,so I figured that was the reason why I was not almost completely blind at the moment...adrenalin is a hell of a thing.

After what felt like hours of walking, we finally stumbled upon a peaceful area. A huge crystal deposit on the ground illuminated the space, which was covered in green grass with trees and a pond or puddle of clear blue water next to a large, crystal-infused tree.

"Alright, this seems like a place to rest for now," I told Yukio, who immediately collapsed onto the grass, exhausted.

"What is this place? How is there a cave this massive underground?" Yukio groaned.

"I don't know, but it's not just the size of the cave. There are so many strange things here. These creatures and glowing crystals don't exist in any species list I know of," I said, placing the crystal beside us in case another lizard decided to pay a visit.

"Let's see if this water is drinkable." I crawled to the blue puddle, scooping some up with my left hand. It was sweet, the clearest and coldest water I'd ever tasted, with a faintly sugary taste. My teeth ached from the chill, but it was incredibly refreshing.

"IT'S SAFE!" I started to say before Yukio almost dove into the puddle, drinking eagerly.

"WHAT IS THIS? IS THIS EVEN WATER? WHY IS IT SO SWEET?" Yukio asked, chugging it down.

"Well, let's hope it's not something dangerous. We've already had a lot of it," I laughed, though I shared her concern. Despite its strange taste, the water was refreshing, and I suddenly felt neither thirsty nor hungry.

"Alright, I'll keep the first watch. You should sleep," I told Yukio, feeling the weight of exhaustion myself, we were both sleepy and drinking whatever that puddle was didn't help at all, we were actually even more sleepy and relaxed than before.

"Fine. Just don't get any funny ideas while I'm asleep," Yukio joked as she settled in.

 "Funny Ideas"? I had never even had a girlfriend before. what "funny Ideas" would I get when she was sleeping. well I knew but I was not that kind of a person.

Once she was asleep, I decided to meditate, hoping it would help me stay awake and recover some strength. 

 I always meditated a lot, sometimes it was once a week sometimes I would do it consecutivly every day for a month or so, each time it was different. however I've only experienced deep meditation handfull of times in my life, I remember one time I was so lost in my own mind that I could not hear my sister yelling at me and I only noticed her when I got a slap in the face because she thought I was messing with her

Closing my eyes and focusing on my breathing, I was immediately overwhelmed by a strange sensation.

It was as if I could feel energy—my own, Yukio's, and the surrounding environment's. Each source felt distinct, almost visible, and I opened my eyes, startled, to find nothing changed visually. Shaking it off, I closed my eyes again, focusing on the strange sensation of energy emanating from everything around me: the crystals, the trees, and even Yukio beside me. It was almost like colors and sensations blending together—vivid reds, blues, greens, all flowing around us.

I focused towards Yukio, only to notice ball of Light blue energy coming from her, it felt...cold...but relaxing at the same time, it was similar to cold water we had drank before in color,next focused on a strange purple-ish energy radiating from a crystal fragment next to me, same energy could be felt around the tree with crystals, which was now mixing both faint green and purple energies, it was beautiful. 

and then I noticed it...the overwhelming vortex of golden color that was radiating couple meters from us...it was the lake...or the puddle we had drank before, the density of it was far beyond everything else.

I opened my eyes immediately, standing up confused and walking to the puddle. it looked like normal clean water. sure there were crystals on the bottom glowing but those crystals were everywhere around us. it looked like just sweet cold water. I sat beside it and started to meditate again.

 this time I could see it clearly. the golden strings of energy this puddle was radiating, how it slowly reached around it, reached to other crystals...and..to...me? as I looked down it was mixing with my red energy, causing it to increase, no wonder I felt more energised when I drank it, ir was unbelievable,how did I not notice it before?

I snapped out of the trance-like state, unsettled but fascinated, I didn't know what this energy was, nor how I was able to see it, but it could have been dangerous to deal with all this alone,esepecially considering I was hal asleep. 

 so I went to check on Yukio. She stirred awake just as I reached her.

"Where did you go?" she asked.

"Just over there, checking out the water," I replied, deciding to keep my strange experience to myself,there was plenty enough time to discuss it after sleep I figured.

"I feel...strange...it's like there's weird aura around me..." she confessed to me hesitantly

I was going to try to hide it for now; not knowing would be better than experiencing this unknown phenomenon. But since the topic was out in the open, I decided to reply truthfully.

"I know, I feel it too, especially during meditation,I think maybe...it's that water...or whatever it is"I replied.

"you think we're high? thanks for cheering me up" Yukio joked.

"more like we've opened 3rd eye,welcome to the multiple eyed club" I said half jokingly, regardless let's figure it out after I get some sleep, now if you'll excuse me my body has had enough for today" I said while laying down next to a glowing crystal, it was warm,causing me to relax in an instant.

"well ok, if anything strange happens I'll wake you up" I heard Yukio say as I finally drifted to sleep.

End Of Chapter

Notes:so here we go! where are these 2 souls stuck? will they be able to return? what is the weird energy in this mysterious cave? stick around to find out